


The Word Machine

by sasabrina



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2019-08-07 00:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16397588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sasabrina/pseuds/sasabrina
Summary: A repository of poetry inspired by Critical Role.





	1. A Litany of Contradictions or The Path of an Uncertain Heart is Never an Easy One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vax and Gilmore always kiss but never like that.

How do you say goodbye to a love that never was?  
I always thought  
You’d let it fade with the quiet click of your boots  
When you thought  
I wasn’t looking.  
I try not to look.  
  
You always kiss me hello.  
You never kiss me goodbye.  
  
I tried.  
I tried not to memorize the way the corner of your eyes crinkle when I walk into the room.  
I tried to pretend that your hands on my cheeks didn’t send the shivers down my spine that kept me up for weeks.  
I tried not to brush my fingers where your lips touched mine.

I tried not to hope that it will all one day be real  
In the way my heart cries for it to be.  
  
How do you say goodbye to a love that never was?  
You always kiss me hello.  
When you kissed me goodbye  
I tried.  
Try.  
Tried.  
I try to pretend that  
I wish you didn’t.


	2. Out of Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by a small moment in The Path to Whitestone.

there is a confession i must make:

i have taken

from your sacred garden.

 

with my cloak and my hood and my quiet boots, i snuck in

while you were in his study.

inside, i took off my shoes

and let my dirty toes rest on the soft prickle of grass.

i took of my hood

and felt the warm sun on my scarred face

until i felt a soft burn

under my nose.

 

the flowers did not

welcome my presence.

i took the one that

took pity on me.


	3. Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by Pike and Grog’s backstory.

_I was not prepared_  
For the coming of  
The storm.

It came  
Not with the thunder  
Of war and death.  
It came  
With the softest  
Patter  
Of knuckles on a door.

 _I was not prepared_  
For the coming of  
The storm.

I nursed the storm  
Into countless nights.  
Numb  
In the hard chair  
By its bed.

I held the storm  
In the palm of my hand.  
Softly  
I spoke every prayer learned  
Into its cold, inked fingers.

 _I was not prepared_  
For the coming of  
The storm.

I was not prepared  
For the storm  
To stay.

For the storm  
Is not a  
Moment—  
The storm is a phenomenon.

And just like that  
The storm  
Carried me  
Out my home  
To strange lands.

To war.  
To destruction.  
To death.  
To a life reborn.

 _I was not_  
Prepared  
For the coming of  
My storm.

My baptism

Of water.  
Of blood.  
Of life anew.

And now,  
My storm calls me,  
In a voice as soft as  
The first fall of  
Rain  
By the only  
Name  
It knows me by.


	4. icarus without the hubris

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by Vax.

How do you keep on falling with wings?  
When you never hit the ground, are you flying or falling?  
The wind rushes past my ears  
I can feel the subtle pluck of the straying feather  
my feet have forgotten who they are.

I never thought I’d be here  
That all my actions  
All my luck  
Would leave me in the dark.  
This dark.  
This dry storm.

I’ve forgotten what light looks like.

My feet have forgotten  
My wings are now bare  
My ears are wet with blood.

The wind rushes past  
Every particle of air a tiny razor that slices

Miniscule wounds open up in my lungs  
Until I drown in my own life  
Killed by the the only thing I could not let go of.


End file.
